Keith Urban Is Ready to Compete with Garth Brooks on the Concert Trail

18 July 2014

Garth Brooks is returning to the road this September, and he’s put all other country artists on notice that he’s ready to raise the stakes when it comes to the live concert experience. That challenge is not news to Keith Urban, though.

“You won’t find a country artist who thinks that’s not the case,” Keith tells ABC News Radio. “We all know that. It’s Garth, you know? He hasn’t toured in thirteen years. So, the anticipation and expectation — all of that’s phenomenal. He’s a phenomenal live performer. People know that. It’s gonna be a behemoth tour for sure.”

Keith goes on to call Garth “creative,” “original” and “an icon.”

As for his own Raise ‘Em Up tour, Keith is keeping things fresh by changing up the set list every night. Fans have also requested a heavy dose of songs from his latest album, Fuse.

Keith explains, “The level of requests we get for songs off this particular album, off Fuse, has been exponential for the last couple of albums. So, I’m so happy about that.”

Keith expects to sing classics like “Somebody Like You” and “Better Life” during his shows, too. Even though he wrote those songs about a decade ago, Keith still finds ways to relate to the lyrics as the years go by.

“They take on a new meaning,” he says. “Why I wrote them may not be this sort of place that I sing from these days, but they take on new meaning.”

Keith has Jerrod Niemann and Brett Eldredge on the road with him this summer. Keep up with his tour dates at KeithUrban.net.